Blowing in the wind

[Caroline Darmo]

Nikon D200, Nikon 70-200VR + TC 1.7
Focal length 340mm
F/8, 1/350
ISO 400

[Julie Kenward]

Hello Caroline! Is this your first post in the macro forum? If so, then welcome!

This is really nice...good definition on all the little "hairs". I like your choice of aperture - nice OOF background as well.

I do have two suggestions for you. If you took this image in RAW format you might want to try to pull the whites down just a touch - they look very close to being on the edge in a few small places. I'd also enlarge the image to 100% magnification and take a look at a few small spots that appear throughout the image. They could be easily cloned out and it would leave your final image with a nice clean appearance.

Your composition is very nice as well - not too tight but nothing extra getting in the way of the focal point. Can't wait to see more!

[Caroline Darmo]

Thanks for the critique Julie, and the warm welcome into this forum. Some of the spots in the image are snowflakes, although I see one or two that are a little suspect... I'm posting from a laptop that isn't very good for image editing and appreciate your thoughts on the whites, they do need to be toned down a bit.

[denise ippolito]

Caroline, I like your image very much-if the whites are hot it is only a tad! Colors look really good to me and I like Milkweeds alot, I find them very interesting!

[Todd Frost]

Nice comp and sharpness. Agree if the whites are hot it only needs a little correction. Nice clean bg.

Todd

[Bruce Murden]

Nice job Caroline. I like the comp here, good balance with both pods tilted the same, and good dynamics with them different sizes and in different steps of opening & seed-shedding. Take out the snowflakes when you can, since there aren't enough to define this as a snowy scene.
Looking forward to more!

[Aristotle Georgiou]

Beautiful capture!

The composition is great, excellent shutter speed, nice lighting and superb detail.

[Mike Moats]

Hey Caroline, this is really nice. Love the comp and details. BG looks great. I would as others stated clear out the snowflakes. Well done!